


Something you never had

by Mix Stitch (Synph)



Series: Empire State University stories [7]
Category: Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Slice of Life, Subtext, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-09
Updated: 2014-06-09
Packaged: 2018-02-04 01:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1761319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Synph/pseuds/Mix%20Stitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s a little bit more than “Best Friend Privilege”.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something you never had

**Author's Note:**

> Characters/Pairings: Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes
> 
> Prompt: The Muse

"What’re you drawing?"

From as far back as Steve can remember Bucky has never bothered to wait for Steve to give him an answer to that question or pass one of his sketchbooks over. He reaches for the sketchbook, pulling it easily out of Steve’s hands and settling the huge book across his lap.

Steve scowls, crossing his arms over his thin chest.

"Give it back, Bucky," Steve says, wincing as a plaintive note entering his voice. "I don’t want you looking —"

Bucky waves away Steve’s complaints with one hand. “You never want me to see what you’re drawing,” he points out, a faint frown turning down his mouth.  Then he smiles, fingers dancing over the sketchbook’s decorated cover. “That’s why I took it.”

Steve sputters wordlessly for several seconds, helpless to find the words that he wants to say — that he can say with Bucky’s mom cooking dinner for them just a room away. In the end, he settles for deepening his scowl and settling back against the arm of the couch, head turned so that he can at least see what it is that Bucky’s looking at in his book and dive for it if that becomes necessary.

 _When_  it becomes necessary, because Steve is only just starting to remember that there are a few pages in the back of this sketchbook that he  _really_  doesn’t need Bucky seeing and teasing him over.

At the front of the book, Steve knows, are pictures of their friends and various family members in various situations both real and fantastical. The middle holds his brief forays into creating comics — mostly unfinished. As for the last third of his latest sketchbook…

Well, Steve has to hope that Bucky gets bored long before he gets there because Steve knows him.

"You’re a jerk, Bucky," Steve says in the wake of those thoughts, the frown on his face only lasting for a moment longer before he feels it melts away into a crooked little half-smile. "You better not bend any of the pages."

Bucky rolls his eyes at Steve, the gesture both fond and exasperated.

"I’m not going to bend anything," Bucky says as he flips open the sketchbook with far less care than Steve likes to see near his sketchbooks. "You worry too much."

"And you don’t worry enough," Steve retorts, still glancing worriedly at the sketchbook splayed across Bucky’s lap.

Bucky utters a noncommittal hum in response, fingers of one hand sliding carefully over the smooth pages in front of him as he stares at the book on his lap. His other hand comes up to scratch at the nape of his neck where brown hair hangs down to his shoulders and curls against the collar of his shirt.

"Seriously, Steve," Bucky breathes after a few minutes go by with him barely making it past the front of the book "Why aren’t you at some fancy arts high school again?" He turns the page and then pauses, squinting at the image in front of him before he lifts the book and turns it around so that Steve can see it. "This is good, Steve. How long did it take you to do this?"

The picture that Bucky seems captivated by is one of Steve’s best works, an almost finished image of Bucky in his JROTC uniform that Steve did after the school’s last rally. It’s a good picture even to Steve’s overly critical eyes, carefully inked lines colored with the lightest press of colored pencil.

It’s one of the best drawings that Steve has done of Bucky in their whole lives, and Steve would know considering how many drawings there are of his best friend in his various sketchbooks.

Feeling his face burn with a blush, Steve shakes his head. “Not long,” he murmurs, feeling strangely exposed with how Bucky looks at him like he can’t believe what he’s seeing. “I draw stuff like that all the time, Bucky. I did something like this for Becca’s birthday, remember?”

Bucky shrugs and then smiles at Steve. “Yeah, but it’s different when it’s my face you’re drawin’, you know?”

Steve shakes his head, trying to will the flush on his cheeks to fade before Bucky can add that to his arsenal too.

"Do you want it?"

"Hm?" Bucky’s lips purse with a frown that Steve tries hard not to focus on.

Steve repeats himself. “Do you want the picture?”

Bucky glances down at Steve’s sketchbook and then, after several moments of quiet stretch between them, he shakes his head.

"Nah," he says, dragging the one syllable word out as his eyes gleam with happiness. "This is good, but you should keep it. It’s yours."


End file.
